Alaska Airlines has unveiled an attention-grabbing recent livery for one in all its aircraft, replacing the much-loved and recently retired ‘Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II’ scheme on the identical airframe. The brand new livery celebrates Alaskan indigenous peoples, their language, and their culture.
Introducing a one-of-a-kind livery
Alaska Airlines has just unveiled its newest aircraft paint theme. Replacing the much-loved ‘Salmon Thirty-Salmon II’ scheme, which was retired just last month, the identical airframe has now appeared from the corporate’s hangar sporting an all-new design but still based on the identical water-borne creature.
The brand new color scheme, named ‘,’ was designed by the talented Alaska Native artist Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl. Xáat Kwáani means ‘Salmon People’ within the Alaskan Tlingit language and refers back to the spiritual link between the individuals who interact with the beloved salmon and all those that profit from the species’ stewardship of the environment.
Photo: Alaska Airlines
Using a design technique generally known as Northwest Coast formline art, the salmon design by Worl is a one-of-a-kind work that honors salmon, culture, artistic expression, and language. Traditional formline art dates back hundreds of years and is a two-dimensional design form of the Northwest Coast.
In response to an official Alaska Airlines statement, as a tribute to the Xáat Kwáani people, the special Boeing 737-800 (tail number N559AS) is the primary of any US domestic airline fleet to be named in an Alaska Native language and to depict the ancestral importance of salmon through Northwest Coast formline art.
Photo: Alaska Airlines
The livery on the recently repainted aircraft also represents the primary time Alaska Airlines has featured a language besides English on the fuselage of any of its aircraft.
More in regards to the recent livery
The Boeing 737 has been completely stripped of its previous salmon-based scheme and is now resplendent in a mix of blue shades. Depicted across all the fuselage length is the stylized image of a whole salmon in white, with an additional salmon diving down the vertical stabilizer.
The attention-catching scheme is highlighted with splashes of pink on various specific points of the salmon imagery and is finished off with small ‘Alaska’ titles along the window line, rear of the wing. The winglets also replicate the stylized salmon image depicted on the tail.
Photo: Alaska Airlines
Further facts in regards to the recent livery are that it took 117 gallons of paint to finish the livery, with the 4 essential colours being Midnight Blue, Atlas Blue, White, and Pink. From landing to take-off, it took just 12 days to color, and the special livery will fly for several years through a paint system that applies a protective clear coat over the bottom coats.
Here’s a short timelapse video that depicts the whole repainting strategy of N559AS into its recent scheme.
Unveiling the brand new color scheme, Marilyn Romano, Regional Vice-President of Alaska Airlines, said
Crystal Worl has a love of monumental art – most recently, murals gracing the edges of buildings in Juneau and Anchorage for locals and visitors to enjoy. And we had a big blank canvas with a 737-800. During our first conversation, Crystal shared her desire to color an Alaska Airlines plane, as she has flown with us most of her life. Salmon as a spotlight was intentional, and Crystal shares the connection between salmon and Native people through storytelling and artistic design.”
Concerning the artist
Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl is Tlingit Athabascan from Raven moiety, Lukaax̱.ádi Sockeye Clan, from the Raven House and is Deg Hit’an Athabascan (on her mother’s side) from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Filipino. Through her art, Worl goals to bring attention to Indigenous culture and to pass on ancestral values to a brand new generation.
Photo: Alaska Airlines
Speaking about her involvement within the project, Worl said,
“Each time I checked out an Alaska plane, I couldn’t help but visualize the salmon being in formline, or having some form of design that represents identity. I can’t help but take a look at things and see methods to Indigenize them. I actually have high hopes this project will encourage people to learn and embrace Indigenous culture and values.”
Worl has previously created several public art installations in Alaska, including a design on the side of a Juneau fire/rescue ambulance, a steel cut medallion installed in downtown Juneau, and a 60-foot by 25-foot mural of Tlingit activist Elizabeth Peratrovich on Juneau’s downtown library constructing.
Last 12 months, Worl painted a mural 125-foot by 48-foot in Anchorage. In March 2023, Worl was commissioned to design ‘The Art of Skateboarding’ series of postal stamps for the USA Postal Service that celebrated the game of skateboarding and what Indigenous groups have dropped at the skating culture.
Photo: Alaska Airlines
Worl is a resident of Juneau, Alaska, as a co-owner and co-designer of a design company along with her brother. The corporate (Trickster Company) promotes revolutionary Indigenous design focused on the Northwest Coast art and exploring themes and issues in Native culture.
Within the video below, Worl explains more about her cultural heritage, how she designed the brand new livery and the importance and importance of the salmon held by the indigenous populations of Alaska.
The primary flight for the ‘Salmon People’ plane
In response to data from ch-aviation.com, the aircraft featuring the brand new scheme (N559AS) was initially delivered to Alaska Airlines in August 2006. Like the opposite 59 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800s, it carries 159 passengers in a three-class configuration, with 12 seats in first-class, 30 in premium class, and 117 in economy class.
Fresh out of the paint bay, the aircraft will begin flying later today (May twelfth, 2023) with an inaugural flight from Anchorage (ANC) through Southeast Alaska. The primary stop of Alaska Airlines flight 62 can be through Worl’s hometown of Juneau, the state’s capital, before continuing through Sitka, Ketchikan, and onward to its final destination of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
After Alaska Airlines announced earlier this 12 months that it might soon be retiring the ‘Salmon Thirty Salmon II’ livery on N559AS, over 2,000 aviation enthusiasts signed a petition asking Alaska Airlines to maintain its iconic special livery, but to no avail.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
Nonetheless, the airline revealed that it might soon unveil the aircraft’s recent livery, which it said would
The airline can be hoping that those 2,000 petitionees (and others) can be pleased with the aircraft’s latest stunning transformation.
What are your thoughts on the brand new color scheme? Do you like it to the ‘Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II’ scheme previously worn by the identical plane? Tell us within the comments.